A man has opened up on the horrifying allergic reaction which he says made him look like 'Megamind' - and left his 'gobsmacked' girlfriend 'unable to look at him'.
After spotting a few greys, Ryan Briggs from Blackburn went to his mum's house last month (27 July) where she applied some black hair dye that she'd bought to help cover it up.
When it was done, Ryan felt a burning sensation on his scalp, but the 27-year-old thought it was normal.
However, upon waking up the next morning and heading into work, he spotted a scaly rash around his hairline and throughout the day, his forehead kept increasing in size, leaving him with a 'balloon head'.
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"It was really badly itchy. I didn't look like myself at all. It was horrible. It was massive. I looked like Megamind, it was bad." he said.
The gas installer was then sent home from work and went to the hospital, and they told him to come back the following day incase it got worse.
He added: "I went home and my girlfriend was gobsmacked, she couldn't look at me because I didn't look like me, I had this big balloon head."
When he woke up the next day, Ryan said he could only see out of one eye.
The poor bloke was then taken via ambulance to the nearest hospital where they told him he'd suffered a reaction to paraphenylenediamine (PPD), a chemical usually found in hair dyes.
Ryan was then put on 25 tablets a day to get the swelling down.
He said: "I thought I'd wake up and it'd be gone, but I woke up and it was totally different.
"When I looked in the mirror that morning I didn't know what to think."
Ryan continued to say: "I rang 111 and got an ambulance to come and get me as I obviously couldn't drive as I couldn't see.
"They said it was an allergic reaction to PPD, which is in the chemicals of the hair dye.
"I was in the hospital for about 13 hours, I got discharged at about 3 o'clock in the morning.
"They didn't send me home with anything as they didn't have it in stock. I had to ring my doctors the next day.
"My girlfriend had to go get the tablets for me from the pharmacy as I still couldn't see."
The NHS recommends anyone using hair dye to do a patch test 'even if you are using your regular brand' - which is something Ryan admits he didn't do as he didn't realise it was necessary.
Although he is now feeling better, he says he's been left with scabs across his scalp and is now warning others to not make the same mistake he did.
"It's fully gone now. My scalp is full of yellow and green scabs but my face has gone normal now." he said.
"Always do a patch test. It could have been worse, it was going down into my neck and everything.
"That's why they kept me in because if it had gone down to my neck it could have started to close my airways up.
"I'm glad it's over now but definitely do patch test, one million percent."
Anish Vij